Thursday, March 24, 2011

They always say, "Read in your genre," meaning whatever it is you're writing, then you'd better read copious amounts of that same kind of book, so you can be up on the hip-happening stuff that's current today.

I've been reading a lot of YA stuff, but I finally realized I've been off in sub-genre-land. I've been reading paranormal, dystopian, fantasy which all are now young adult sub-genres. I'm writing YA Contemporary. You know, real life stuff. No Vampires--sparkly or otherwise. No Werewolves who take off their shirts every other second--wait, that's the movie version (that's what I've heard anyway). Not even any Shapeshifters ala Kiersten White.

Hopefully, I haven't lost you, but there really were novels written before Twilight's Edward came on the scene. Stories about real (fake) people who live in real (fake) worlds. That's what I'm writing.

I went to the library to find those kinds of books and just stared at the shelves, stymied as to what to choose. I had printed a list, but none of the books on the list were there. It seemed like every one I picked up contained fantasy elements or over-the-top teen angst or other unmentionables that I have no interest in reading.

I did the only thing I could do...grabbed all the Janette Rallison's I could find that I don't already own and off I went.

If you have any other reading suggestions IN MY GENRE, please share. And hurry before gruesome creatures from the underworld start cropping up at Ideal High. [reference to my novel]

(And yes, I know Janette has those Fairy Godmother novels, but most of what she writes seems to be the real (fake) world stuff. And BTW, I'm really enjoying Just One Wish.)

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Okay, of course, my pitch at the writers conference was not perfect, but look at the sweater I wore. Perfect. Better than any collar shirt, right?

And the (amazing, exciting, unbelievable, scary!) good news is that the agent said YES, she wants to see my story!!!

I thought I would come out of the pitch after receiving her card into my sweaty little palm screaming and jumping up and down, but no. I just felt like I had made one very small step in a very long process. Then I went to my room to call my husband and had a short happy cry. Apparently, I felt more like crying than jumping up and down.

The agent had one recommendation for me--a change that would make my story more marketable. She asked if I would change the accident that takes place before the story opens. Right now it is a car accident, but she wisely said that car accidents in teen fiction are overdone and any other type of accident would make it stand out as unique.

I also blog at these "spots"

CURRENTLY READING:

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt (for book club)

Half the Skyby Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

The Book of Mormonby various authors

Out of the mouths of writerly people

"Once the disease of reading has laid hold upon the system it weakens it so that it falls an easy prey to that other scourge which dwells in the inkpot and festers in the quill. The wretch takes to writing." --Virginia Woolf

"...it's easy after all not to be a writer. Most people aren't writers and very little harm comes to them." --Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot